European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 4, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday january 4, 1993 sports the stars and stripes Page 21 felonious Mike Tyson left took the sports world into the belly of the beast in 1992. Luckily for the dream team magic Johnson did no to need a moral Compass to get to needs new set of heroes a John Jeansonne new Day in 1992, the sports circus was Slicker Riddier More elaborate than Ever. But the Freak show just beneath the surface was More obvious More disturbing. The anaesthesia of immaturity began to Wear off. No escaping it kids the dreamy world of fun and games is peopled by something less than gods. As Gerald White Johnson longtime newsman and commentator wrote in a american heroes and hero worship Quot 1943a a heroes Are created by popular demand sometimes out of the scant est materials or none at All.�?T1. In 1992, there was massive popular demand for playing Field giants from Here to Barcelona but the Flimsy covers of Field goal percentage hang time strikeout ratio Yards per carry were falling easily away. Along with magic Johnson a stunning 25-Point Aba All Star game performance in his first action after the announcement that he was his positive came Johnson a Book a my life a in which he boasted of a promiscuous sex life. Along with Michael Jordan s wondrous playoff show of Roxy slam dunks to equating three Point records Canie his admission that he paid almost $57,000 to a suspected drug dealer to cover gambling debts. The . Olympic basketball players a sent on Holiday to wasteful Monaco treated with reverence set up with Barcelona a series of exhibitions they possibly lose to nations torn by War and poverty and political chaos a embarrassed themselves in a Nick Reebok Money grab that fit routinely into a sports year defined As much by its moral moonscape As its fabulous athletic feats. Mike Tyson was jailed on a rape conviction. Three new York mets were investigated for rape another for deviant behaviour. New York Yankees Pitcher Steve Howe copped a. Plea for attempting to buy cocaine was suspended a seventh time by baseball then reinstated by an arbitrator. Retired football player Lyle Alzado before dying of brain cancer at 43, blamed a copious use of steroids for his disease. Mississippi state football coach Jackie Sherrill in a neanderthal attempt to inspire his them watch the castration of a Young Bull. Twenty current and former Cincinnati bengals were named in a rape Case Cincinnati reds owner commentary Marge Schott was investigated for racist bigoted remarks. On several Levels magic Johnson was the main attraction in the 1992 circus. His Benevo-i6nt smile and easy manner Drew the world to him at the Barcelona olympics. His Beautiful play argued for normalcy in his infected patients and ultimately convinced even him that despite the virus he could return to professional basketball. But the worlds uneasiness with his and aids pecked away at him first with Canadian and australian players proclaiming that they would not risk a magic collision finally with olympic teammate Karl Malone expressing the same concern before the Aba season. Johnson a Early fall announcement that he would return to the los Angeles lakers was punctuated by his naive declaration that a a it a time to have some he did no to see the hysterical doubts coming because of the imagined peril of an his Carrier. A the truest heroism is to resist doubt a Nathaniel Hawthorne said. But the extent of Johnson a resistance had come before the olympics when his agent reacted to shoddy to reporting by planting a newspaper store fretting that the International olympic committee was trying to a take magic a olympic dream the Ioc. Never considered anything of the kind magic got his undiluted olympic fun. In 1992, though sad reality held its own with the childlike amusement of sports. The los Angeles dodgers and the los Angeles clippers were forced to postpone Home games a and the lakers relocated temporarily in Las vegas Nev. A because of los Angeles riots in the Wake of a not guilty verdict in the trial of four White policemen who beat a Black Motorist. A different form of racism raised its ugly head in baseball where the news of japanese interests buying the Seattle mariners brought mindless caterwauling. Manon Rheaume the first woman to play in a National hockey league game was More accepted for her 20 minutes in goal during a Tampa Bay lightning exhibition than the japanese shoppers were. Fifty one years after Pearl Harbor corporate America was hesitant to. Embrace olympic figure skating Champion Kristi Yamaguchi four generations removed from her japanese ancestry. The realization should have set in during the past 12 months sports hardly is All feel Good stuff. It is in fact loaded with human frailty out of control self importance and cynicism increasingly harder to hide behind uplifting statistics and video highlights. Even the jocks principles of fair play were perverted. The new York rangers tried the cheapest of shortcuts to a first Stanley cup in 52 years taking out Pittsburgh penguins superstar Mario Lemieux with a bullying slash that broke Lemieux a hand but backfired when the rangers deservedly were eliminated anyway. Charles Barkley explained his cheap shot against an angolan olympian with a smart Aleck racist crack that a the might have been carrying a Barkley a olympic teammate John Stockton offered the Macho narrow minded observation from an air conditioned Barcelona luxury hotel that the olympic spirit is a a beating other teams a not living with them in the less Plush non air conditioned athletes Village. Those were our so called heroes of 1992. Those were the paradigms of sporting Wisdom. Those were what popular demand created. Turn the Page
